Ben Howland leaves the court for the final time as UCLA coach after his Bruins lost to Minnesota in the second round of this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament. / Jim Cowsert, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

by Mike Lopresti, USA TODAY Sports

Steve Alford has always seemed like a good coach and nice enough fellow. Hope he understands what he's in for.

UCLA wants the former New Mexico coach to be its next Wooden. Just like it wanted Ben Howland to be, and Steve Lavin, and Jim Harrick and ... well, who has time to name them all? There have been eight Bruins coaches since Wooden who were asked to be the next Wooden, and those eight lasted an average of less than five seasons.

Not that there weren't good times on the court. Harrick won a national championship. Howland went to three consecutive Final Fours. Larry Brown went to a national championship game. Nobody had a happy ending.

Welcome to Westwood, Steve.

"This is truly a leap of faith," Alford said on a conference call Saturday. "I think it becomes a little bit easier when it's UCLA."

Easier? Well, we'll see. The job has become a hand grenade with the pin pulled out. It boasts tradition, nice weather, plenty of money and about a gazillion high school prospects who can be visited within a 30-minute drive. But the coaches at Butler and Virginia Commonwealth ran the other way when approached, too.

It is a college job that the Los Angeles masses and media want to treat like a pro job. Like the Lakers. Like the Clippers. Please don't bore them with stories of relationships and perspective and academics and the old college try. Just win, baby.

"At UCLA they celebrate national championships. ... We don't even have recognition for (getting to the) Final Fours anywhere on campus," Howland said Saturday on CBS.

By win, that means national championships. Note the plural. If not, go away. You ain't Wooden. The irony is, few men had a firmer grasp on perspective than John Wooden. And oh, the coaching carnage that has happened in his name.

A man who just won the Pac-12 season title and once three-peated in Final Four trips was sacked. Not enough hardware, not enough conquest. They didn't like Howland's offense, or his timeouts. The AAU coaches of California didn't get along with him supposedly. Bet there's a real level-headed bunch.

Welcome to Westwood, Steve.

"I'm very comfortable with the pressure," Alford said. "I've been under pressure since I was 16. My high school gym seats 10,000 people and sold out eight times my senior year. Not a lot of 16-year-olds play in front of 10,000 at the high school level."

Certainly, he has the track record of being a capable coach. And he must be tough. He played, and thrived, for four years for Bob Knight at Indiana. No other test of manhood need be passed.

"Nobody understands pressure more than I do," Alford said. "You're not going to find anybody more competitive than I am, or more driven toward excellence."

But consider the cultures of the career coaching path. From Manchester (Ind.) University to Missouri State in Springfield to Iowa in Iowa City to New Mexico in Albuquerque. And now to Westwood.

That last step is going to be a doozy.

New Mexico just had an outstanding season under Alford. The Lobos won 29 games and the Mountain West title.

Then they lost to Harvard in the NCAA Tournament.

Know what they think at UCLA about a coach, if he wins 29 games and the conference title and loses to Harvard in the NCAA Tournament? They think he's not John Wooden.

That's the basketball equivalent of getting kissed on the cheek in a mob movie. The hitman can't be far behind.

All you have to do to keep them happy is win the national title. Then do it again. And again. Piece of cake.

"I was about as happy as you could be," Alford said about New Mexico, although apparently not enough to stay, even though he just signed a 10-year contract extension.

"It goes back to the four letters. UCLA."

Alford's father, Sam, once coached high school basketball in Martinsville, Ind. Know who graduated from Martinsville? John Wooden.

Maybe that was the clincher for UCLA. Taking an Indiana boy and putting him to work in Pauley Pavilion. It worked once before.

But this isn't 1964. When it comes to hyperventilated expectations, not many can top UCLA, and there is a growing pile of discarded men-who-weren't-Wooden to prove it.